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This Week in Pac-10 Baseball

PAC-10 BASEBALL KICKS OFF CONFERENCE ACTIONWashington State hosts California to begin Pac-10 Play

The Pac-10 Conference season begins this Friday when CALIFORNIA visits WASHINGTON STATE for a three game set and ARIZONA STATE heads south to take on rival ARIZONA ... STANFORD and USC find themselves in 'non-conference' games in Los Angeles ... UCLA and OREGON STATE continue to play non-conference opponents, with the Bruins visiting Miami and the Beavers hosting Cal State Northridge ... Midweek games include USC at Loyola Marymount and Saint Mary's at Cal.

ARIZONA (19-8)Last Week: UNC-Wilmington L 7-9, W 9-6, 14-2 This Week: *Arizona State Arizona broke a four-game losing streak by defeating UNC-Wilmington 9-6 and 14-2. In the victories, the Wildcats posted 23 to the Seahawks' 8 runs ... Arizona collected a season-high 17 hits in Sunday's 14-2 win ... FR RF Jeff Van Houten and SO OF/P Brian Anderson, both hit grand slams against UNC-Wilmington. The two four-baggers brings Arizona's season total to eight, placing this season's team in an eight-way tie for the school single season grand slam record ... Anderson, after returning last weekend from a 15-day stint on the disabled list, did well in Saturday's game going 2-for-2 with five RBI and two runs scored. He also took the mound in that game, earning his second save of the season ... It might be a good thing that Arizona opens its Pac-10 season at home. This year, the Wildcats are batting .328 at Sancet Field, while posting a .167 batting average on the road. Arizona's pitching is at a 3.36 ERA at home and over a run higher on the road, at 4.40 ... SR SS Brad Hassey is riding a team-leading 12 game hitting streak. He leads the team with 32 hits and is second-best on the team with 24 runs.

ARIZONA STATE (16-8)Last Week: at New Mexico St. L 7-8, Oklahoma L 3-6, W 6-4, L 5-7 This Week: *at Arizona The Sun Devils are coming off a 1-3 performance last week, falling to New Mexico State and Oklahoma. The three losses came by a total of six runs ... Despite last week's setback, ASU has still won seven of its last nine games ... This weekend ASU opens up its Pac-10 season at its instate rival, Arizona. Sun Devil skipper Pat Murphy's teams have never lost a season series to the Wildcats ... Saturday's game at Arizona will be televised on FOX Sports Net as the Pac-10 Game of the Week ... The Sun Devils have been without leadoff hitter, Steve Garrabrants for the past five games. Garrabrants is 10-for-17 with four doubles, a home run and a walk, when hitting in the No. 1 spot ... SR CF Jon Sheaffer is tied with Garrabrants for the team-lead in batting average (.375). He has at least one hit in 16 of his last 18 games ... Through 24 games, the Sun Devil pitching staff has notched three complete games. Last season ASU only had one ... SO RHP Mike Esposito took the loss in ASU's game first game against the Sooners, but he struck out a career-high 10 batters and gave up just two earned runs in six innings pitched ... If the Sun Devils score in their game against Arizona Friday night, it will bring their NCAA record consecutive games scoring streak to 400 games.

CALIFORNIA (15-11)Last Week: San Francisco W 12-4, UC Irvine W 3-1, L 4-5, 3-7 This Week: Saint Mary's, *at WSU Last week Cal went 2-2, picking up a midweek win against San Francisco and just one win in a three-game series at UC Irvine ... The Bears are 5-5 in their last 10 games played ... This weekend Cal takes on Saint Mary's before heading north to open up Pac-10 play at Washington State. Last season the Bears went 1-2 against the Cougars ... SR RHP Trevor Hutchinson picked up his team-leading fifth win of the season in Cal's 3-1 win over the Anteaters. In seven innings pitched, Hutchinson gave up just one run on five hits, while recording six strikeouts. He currently has a 2.82 ERA and 52 K's in 54.1 innings pitched. Opposing batters are hitting just .211 against him ... SO 1B Conor Jackson and SR 2B Carson White did well at the plate against San Francisco and UC Irvine. Jackson went 7-for-14 (.500) with two runs and seven RBI, while White was 7-for-15 (.467) with four doubles and six RBI. White is tied with SO SS Jeff Dragicevich for the team-lead in doubles (7).

OREGON STATE (13-7)Last Week: Washington State W 9-1, 5-4, 6-5 (10) This Week: CS Northridge The Beavers are riding their longest winning streak of the season with five straight victories. Oregon State have won nine of its last 10 games ... The Beavers are coming off of their first series sweep this season, over Washington State. OSU took the first game easily from the Cougars with a 9-1 win, but had to come-from-behind in the second and third game of the series ... Sunday's win over the Cougars marked the fourth straight year the Beavers have won on March 17, head coach Pat Casey's birthday ... JR LHP Mark McLemore went a career-high six innings and allowed just two runs on two hits with six K's in OSU's 6-2 10th inning win over WSU. In 13.2 innings pitched this season, McLemore has 13 strikeouts and an opposing batters average of .189 ... SO RHP Jared Sanders also did well on the hill last week. In relief, Sanders earned a win and a save against the Cougars, allowing no runs on two hits in his two appearances ... Continuing on its home stand, OSU takes on Cal State Northridge this weekend.

STANFORD (14-5)Last Week: no games This Week: at USC Stanford plays USC in a 'non-conference' match-up in Los Angeles this weekend. Last year, the Cardinal won four of six games against the Trojans, but won only one game at Dedeaux Field ... JR OF Jason Cooper leads the Cardinal with a .455 batting average, 30 hits, 23 RBI and .712 slugging percentage ... JR C Ryan Garko leads the team with 25 runs and five round-trippers ... SR Arik VanZandt, FR Donny Lucy and SO Brian Hall all are a perfect 5-5 on the basepaths ... Cardinal pitchers are led by JR RHP Jeremy Guthrie's 5-0 record. Guthrie has a 3.07 ERA and 42 strikeouts in 41.0 innings pitched ... SO RHP John Hudgins is also perfect on the year at 3-0 with a 3.75 ERA. Opposing batters are hitting just .236 against him.

UCLA (13-13)Last Week: Pepperdine W 10-6, UC Irvine L 4-6 This Week: at Miami UCLA played just two games last week because of final exams ... The Bruins return to action this weekend when they visit Miami ... SR C Josh Arhart should return to play against the Hurricanes. Arhart has been out with a pulled hamstring since the Tulane series (Mar. 2-3). Before the injury he was hitting .443 with six doubles and a .590 slugging percentage ... In his only at-bats last week, SR LF Adam Berry went 2-for-2 with two home runs and four RBI in UCLA's 10-6 win over Pepperdine. SO 3B Brandon Averill also was 2-for-2 with a home run against the Waves ... JR LHP Mike Kunes earned his team-leading fifth win of the season against Pepperdine. He allowed just one earned run and struck out six batters in 5.0 innings pitched. Kunes has a 4.85 ERA with 28 K's in 39.0 innings pitched.

USC (12-9)Last Week: at San Diego W 15-5, at Pepperdine W 5-3, 18-6, at San Diego St. W 8-6 This Week: StanfordWinners of five straight contests, the Trojans will play their first home games of the season this weekend against Stanford ... Last week USC unleashed offensively, scoring 46 runs to the 20 of its opponents ... SO RHP Jon Williams earned his first Pac-10 Pitcher of the Week honor for his efforts in USC's 5-3 win over Pepperdine. Williams allowed no runs on two hits. He didn't walk a batter, while recording two strikeouts and retiring a stretch of 18 straight batters in 6.1 innings of relief ... JR RHP Anthony Reyes took the mound for the first time this season in USC's 18-6 victory against the Waves. Reyes, who has been sidelined this season with a sore right elbow, allowed two walks in a one-inning limited start ... SR CF Brian Barre put in strong plate performances in three games last week, hitting .500 (6-for-12) with two home runs, two doubles and six RBI. In the Trojans' 15-5 win over No. 20 San Diego, Barre went 3-for-4 in the leadoff spot with two home runs and five RBI. On the season he is hitting .370 and leads the team in home runs (6) and RBI (22).

WASHINGTON (9-8-1)Last Week: Brigham Young W 15-8, L 5-7, T 12-12 (8) This Week: at Washington State Washington posted a 1-1-1 record against Brigham Young last week. The 12-12 tie in the Huskies' final game with the Cougars was the first tie game for UW since 1983 ... JR OF Jay Garthwaite earned his second-ever Pac-10 Player of the Week honor for his performance in the BYU series. Garthwaite was a double short of hitting for the cycle in both last Thursday's and Saturday's games. Against the Cougars he hit .538 (7-for-13) with three triples, two home runs and a stolen base. He also scored five times and drove in seven runs ... SR RHP Shawn Kohn earned his fifth win of the season against BYU. He had a rough outing allowing eight runs on nine hits, but got great run support from his teammates in the 15-8 victory ... The Huskies will play no games this week and meet up with rival, Washington State, next weekend.

WASHINGTON STATE (10-10)Last Week: at Oregon State L 1-9, 4-5, 5-6 (10) This Week: at Portland, *California The Cougars were swept at Oregon State last weekend to put their losing streak at a season-high four games. Washington State will try to end that skid when they host California this weekend to open up Pac-10 play ... This home series will be the first for WSU this season, after opening the season with 20 straight games on the road ... Last year WSU took two of three games at Berkeley ... Last weekend the Cougars were led offensively by SO OF Collin Henderson. Against the Beavers, Henderson batted .455 with five singles and his first home run of the season. He joined the Cougar squad in mid-February, as he is also a starting wide receiver on the WSU football team ... SR 2B Bookie Gates is currently riding a 10-game hitting streak. SR CF Evan Hecker had a 10-game hitting streak earlier this season as well.